It’s Monday, and I wake up excited to brush my teeth. I wasn’t allowed to yesterday, so my teeth feel gross. We have breakfast, and then I decide to look into the mystery mouthrinse I got from the dentist yesterday. It’s poison. Or, at least, it tastes like poison? It’s horrendous, and apparently, you’re not supposed to eat or drink anything for the first 4 hours after rinsing. So I eat breakfast, drink my tea, and then brush teeth. And rinse. It feels like I’ve just washed my mouth in … poison! Bleh! So I spit a million gazillion times while the girls zoom through today’s Social Studies workload. Joe makes a snack for himself and the girls while I sit there with a burning tongue, feeling very sorry for myself. Then Joe looks at me and says “where do you want to go today”, and I say… Let’s go to Sai Kung!
Sai Kung is an area straight East from where we’re staying, and I remember it as being “far” when we went with aunts, uncles and cousins back in 2013. One of Joe’s uncles used to live out in that direction, so he showed Joe and I around back then, and we were invited for a BBQ and night at one of his aunts’ company apartments/row house (I remember it had a rooftop terrace where we had a bonfire and BBQ). So lots of great memories from the Sai Kung of 2013, why not go show the girls around there today?
Considering we didn’t leave home until after 11.30am, we got there surprisingly fast! We took the subway one stop, and then walked to find a bus that took us directly there. I don’t know how we travelled back in 2013, but the bus from here to there took only 25 minutes! Colour me shocked!
We get off at the end stop, and walk over to the water. I vividly remember, and have photos that don’t capture the excitement at all, the fish mongers in their boats on the water, and the customers on the pier, the pulley system for money and seafood, and the lady chopping and filleting fish faster than any other I’ve ever seen, with the biggest cleaver and the smallest slice of tree trunk as her chopping board. But, today there is no market. Joe says he thinks it’s a morning thing, and we’re here too late.
It’s a bit grey and a lot windy today, and when there aren’t bus loads of tourists being dropped off every 15 minutes, the staff have all the more time to stand in their doorways, shouting at you to come eat at their establishment. We get lots of invitations, and accept none.
Once we’re away from the water, we hope that the prices and the pressure will ease a bit. We find a tea restaurant, and head on in. By now, it’s been 4 hours since I rinsed my mouth with poison, so I’m allowed to eat, and starving. We order two main dishes to share, and each comes with a hot drink. Yin yang for Joe, milk tea for me. All is as it should be.
When we get back outside, the sun is peeking through the clouds, and we walk around for a bit. This impressive tree was right by the bus stop, but my first picture was so cloudy and grey, you get the after lunch version instead.
We walk through Sai Kung Market, a clean and modern tiled building with “wet market” downstairs (butchers, fish mongers, anything that’s “messy”) and green market/dry market upstairs, fruits, vegetables, sundries and everything else. We just walk through the upstairs quickly, and realize most vendors are probably still off for the holidays. Either that, or the market just doesn’t have that many vendors any more. The ones that are there look very bored.
I’m holding Maylin’s hand, Joe and Téa are ahead by a few stalls, when Maylin suddenly tugs on my arm and says “Mommy look”! She spotted a personal pet that had come to work with their owner today, and as Maylin waved, this little guy climbed up on his wall and made it look like he was waving back. We asked and were allowed to take a picture, and Maylin was so happy. She ran to get her sister, and Téa got to see the cute turtle (tortoise?) as well.
Back over by the harbour, the girls pose with the cutest sign:
Now we’re on the hunt for dessert/afternoon treat. Joe’s asked around and been told that tofu pudding can be found close to the bus depot. When we get there, I spot the entrance to what I remember being an alley full of tiny restaurants (tiny = the smallest maybe four stools by the kitchen counter), and I say we need to try that way. It’s just the way I remember it, just restaurant after restaurant, serving so many different things, and so many people enjoying good food. It’s not as busy today as back then, but it’s a pretty calm and grey day still. And holiday. I’m sure in a different week, it’ll be busier!
In the end, we end up doing another total loop of the Sai Kung core, and we end up having dessert at Sweet Heart Dessert. The minute we open the door, we know they deal in durian, because the smell is unmistakable. But, I’m not here for durian, not today. I’ve been craving tofu pudding, and she’s got it on the menu. I don’t want mango, I don’t want durian, I am craving the tofu pudding of my memories, with sweet ginger syrup. She has no syrup, but a ginger sugar she puts on top.
After dessert, we’re done for the day. We head back to the bus, then to the subway, and take the minibus home. As Joe is making dinner that evening, we hear helicopters. Usually, a helicopter or two flying by wouldn’t even get a look out the window, but this sound just isn’t going away. I take a peek out the bedroom window and see that one is just hovering, not moving, right above the forest between us and Lion Rock Mountain. Usually there’s just hikers, wild monkeys and wild packs of dogs that howl all through the night in the forest, so I hope the hikers are ok. None of the others would warrant a helicopter.
Joe makes dinner, we eat, I take my medicine, and after I brush my teeth, I rinse in poison. It’s so nasty. I can’t even put the girls to bed, I need to spit every time I speak. Yuk, gross, let it be over soon! But at least my intense tooth pain has gone away, now it’s just extraction sites healing. That’s much better!